India will continue to celebrate Manu Bhaker, regardless of what unfolded at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre on Saturday.
Finishing second in qualification with a 590 on Friday, medal in Women’s 25m Pistol would have placed Manu in the standalone league of an Indian Olympian with three medals in a single edition of the Games.
Manu’s medal tally stayed at two as she lost the shoot-off for bronze with Hungary’s Veronika Major, who topped qualification by equalling the Olympic record with 592, after both shooters tied at 28.
Coming from where she was, failing to reach the final in all three of her events at the Tokyo Olympics, Manu rallied brilliantly in Paris to create a league of her own by making three finals at a single edition. Before her, 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra had made three Olympic finals, but across three editions — Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016.
A firm believer in karma, Manu will keep striving for medals of a better colour, and who knows, that time could come four years from now at Los Angeles.
In a field of proven winners, Manu did not start well on Saturday, and was 6th after the first series of five shots. Barring the fourth series, when she slipped once more, it was a constant endeavour to keep challenging Korea’s Yang Jiin (586 in qualification), who led from the start, and finished by winning the shoot-off (4-1) for gold with home favourite Camille Jedrzejewski (585 in qualification) following a tie at 37 points.
In contention for a medal till the seventh series, Manu, tied for the 2nd spot at that point seemed relaxed. Shooting with a hand in the pocket and the sellout crowd egging her on, glory was within touching distance.
As it often happens, the scope of error at this level is minimal and a poor 8th series led to the tie.
Veronika stood between Manu and bronze in the shoot-off, and the Hungarian proved to be better at handling pressure, finishing with a 31 to win Hungary’s first Olympic medal in the sport since the late Diána Igaly’s gold in Women’s Skeet at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Manu’s 4th place has precedence in Indian Olympic history as Abhinav Bindra lost a tense shoot-off in Men’s 10m Air rifle to Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish after the two were tied at 163.8. In the race for bronze or better, Abhinav scored 10.0 to 10.5 by Kulish, who went on to win silver.
Interestingly on Friday, Kulish won silver in Men’s 50m Rifle Three Positions ahead of Swapnil Kusale.
Manu’s finish had a date with history too as on August 3, 2012, Joydeep Karmakar finished 4th at the London Olympics in Men’s 50m Rifle Prone.
Manu also became the second Indian shooter to finish 4th in Paris after Arjun Babuta in Men’s 10m Air Rifle.
In Men’s Skeet, Anant Jeet Singh Naruka was nowhere close to his best as his qualification score of 116 placed him 24th in a field of 30 shooters.
Vincent Hancock of USA won his fourth straight Olympic gold with a score of 58 (123), a point less than his Olympic record at the 2021 Tokyo Games. Teammate Lynn Conner Prince, who topped qualification with 124, got silver with a 57, and Yuan Meng Lee of the Chinese Taipei settled for bronze with 45 (124).